This article is relevant if you use NetSuite Service Resources Planning (SRP) or NetSuite Advanced Projects and you would like a mechanism to generate invoices for requesting monies up front to collect customer deposits or retainers.

Background

NetSuite has come a long way as it has evolved what used to be called NetSuite Advanced Projects and now is NetSuite Services Resource Planning (NetSuite SRP). If you utilize charge-based billing and NetSuite Advanced Revenue Recognition, you know you have the ability to generate invoices which properly route to deferred revenue as a liability.

However, activating NetSuite’s Advanced Revenue Recognition system is a commitment that should not be taken without a clear understanding of the processing implications. For example, in our NetSuite Systems Integration practice, we offer services based on time and materials. We invoice our clients weekly for previous week’s work. Thus, we do not have any real revenue recognition challenges as our invoices closely approximate earned revenue.

At the same time, much of our NetSuite service business is based on retainers to engage our professionals. Thus, we have the need to request monies in advance of earning revenue. Consequently, the customer deposit record becomes the transaction record to help us properly record liabilities before we invoice our real work and thus consume retainer deposits.

We have previously done much work to help improve the processing and accounting flow to generate invoices that are used to request customer deposits monies. See these related articles:

1. Solved: NetSuite Customer Deposits and Advance Payment Accounting
2. Create NetSuite Customer Deposits from Opportunities or Estimates
3. Yes You Can: Generate a NetSuite Customer Statement on an Invoice with Customer Deposit Accounting

Recently, a client needed a mechanism to generate customer deposit invoice requests based on NetSuite projects. We thus enhanced our Prolecto Customer Deposits Generator Bundle to support creating multiple requests for customer deposit funds that then leverage the existing customer deposit invoice pattern.

Requesting Customer Deposits on NetSuite Projects

Because projects can run a long time, and you may want to only work on retainers (customer deposits), having a mechanism that allows you to make customer deposit requests is meaningful. The ability then to see those customer deposit requests on your traditional Accounts Receivable Aging helps you better anticipate cash flow and perform customer follow-up.

In this model, our customer deposit generator will create an invoice that can be sent to the customer. Once invoices are paid (partial payments are handled), then the payments are transformed into customer deposits (with proper accounting). If there are any earned invoices (non-customer deposit type invoices) outstanding, the invoices will be paid by the new customer deposit.

Finally, as earned invoices are generated, we automatically apply project-based customer deposit funds against those invoices.

Watch Demonstration Video (3:10) on Project Based Customer Deposit Invoice Requests

The video (3:10) below will demonstrate the flow from a NetSuite Project record. Note, to fully appreciate the power of the customer deposit generator tool, I recommend reviewing this article, Solved: NetSuite Customer Deposits and Advance Payment Accounting.

Get the NetSuite Customer Deposit Generator Bundle

We believe the customer deposit record can be used in powerful capacities in the NetSuite environment especially if you do not want to use NetSuite’s Advanced Revenue Recognition system. We offer this bundle, as well as all of our algorithms, to our clients without a license fee. Our business model is NetSuite professional services to drive greater value to our clients by bridging business acumen, accounting knowledge coupled with demonstrated NetSuite innovation. If you have a use case for project driven customer deposit management, let’s have a conversation.

Marty Zigman

Holding all three official certifications, Marty is regarded as the top NetSuite expert and leads a team of senior professionals at Prolecto Resources, Inc. He is a former Deloitte & Touche CPA and has held CTO roles. For over 30 years, Marty has produced leadership in ERP, CRM and eCommerce business systems. Contact Marty to set up a conversation.

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